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Policy Directives

Middleton Railway Trust Ltd. (MRT) Policy Directive

Reference: GEN/1 (7/19)

Subject: Policy Directives.

For the attention of: All Council members.

This Directive forms part of the Safety Management System.

Revision History

Previous versions of this Directive were as follows. Reference 8/88/1 was the initial version.

Reference 8/14/1 replaced it, mainly to reflect the role of directives in the safety management system. This version replaced it, to revise the numbering scheme for directives.

Content Summary

This Directive contains the following sections: Introduction

Scope of Policy Directives

Development and Identification of Policy Directives Structure of Policy Directives

Review and Revision of Policy Directives Schedules to Policy Directives

Schedule 1: List of Topic Areas and Codes

Introduction

  1. This Policy Directive is a revision of the one that originally defined the system of Policy Directives. It has been made to specify a new numbering scheme for Policy Directives, which is intended to make references to Policy Directives from any documents easier to manage as the Policy Directives are revised.
  • The role of this Directive within the Safety Management System of the MRT is to define the procedure by which management decisions concerning the structure and organisation of that system are documented and made available to those officers who need to be aware of them. It also defines the numbering system to be used for the associated documents.
  • This Directive will be due for review at intervals of ten years.

Scope of Policy Directives

  • Policy Directives will be issued from time to time with the full authority of the Council of the MRT. They will cover matters which are the concern of Council members or other persons holding particular offices within the MRT. In some cases the matters which they cover will also be of concern to external bodies, and in such cases the Directive should also identify these bodies, and may need to include additional background material to explain aspects of the MRT’s operation to these bodies.
  • Policy Directives are separate from the rules, regulations and instructions, but are equally binding on the identified persons who are concerned with the matters that they cover. In particular, Policy Directives may require these persons to issue such rules, regulations or instructions as part of their implementation.
  • Policy Directives are only intended to cover subjects which are the concern of persons having particular responsibilities, and they are not intended as a mechanism for bringing the associated matters to the attention of larger groups of people than the whole of the Council. Where a Policy Directive covers a subject for which the associated matters will need to be brought to the attention of a larger group, then the Directive should specify the mechanism by which these matters will be brought to the attention of this larger group, such as by the issuing of rules, regulations or instructions.

Development and Identification of Policy Directives

  • A draft Policy Directive will be formulated by an appropriate person or persons, preferably in consultation with the Company Secretary, and it will then be submitted to the Council for approval. The text of the Directive will identify the individuals who have formulated it, and where appropriate the roles which they have been carrying out in helping to formulate it.
  • A Policy Directive may not take effect until it is approved by the Council, but shall then take immediate effect from the Council meeting at which it is approved, unless otherwise stated within the Directive. Once in force, a Policy Directive may only be revised or rescinded by the Council.
  • On approval a Policy Directive will be allocated a number which can be used as a reference, and this number will consist of the following three components:
    • a code that identifies the topic area that covers the subject of the Directive, where the list of topic areas and codes is specified in Schedule 1 to this Directive;
    • a number which identifies the Directive within that topic area, where these numbers are allocated from 1 upwards as Policy Directives are created; and
    • the month and year in which the Directive is approved or revised, as appropriate.
  1. An up-to-date index of Policy Directives and their references shall be maintained by the Company Secretary, and made available as necessary to those persons concerned with their implementation.
  1. When approved, Policy Directives will be issued by being posted on the MRT’s intranet, which will contain a section specifically for the publication of Policy Directives. This section of the intranet will clearly define the revision status of each Directive. If appropriate, copies of Policy Directives may also be circulated directly to the persons concerned with them, or may be posted on appropriate notice boards, and one or other of these methods must be adopted in any case where a Directive needs to be brought to the attention of any individuals who are not members of the Council and who do not have access to the MRT’s intranet.
  1. A complete set of Policy Directives will be maintained by the Company Secretary.

Structure of Policy Directives

  1. Every Policy Directive will begin with a heading which states its reference number, its subject, the individuals who need to give attention to it, and a statement as to whether the Directive does or does not form part of the MRT’s Safety Management System.
  1. For every Policy Directive, this heading will be followed by a revision history that will identify any previous versions, and indicate the major changes between versions. This revision history will be followed by a summary of the content of the Directive, in the form of a list of any section headings that are incorporated into it.
  1. The text of a Policy Directive will consist of a set of clauses which will be numbered consecutively, for ease of reference. These clauses should be ordered into groups dealing with related aspects of the subject, and appropriate section headings should be provided to make this grouping clear.
  1. In particular each Policy Directive should begin with an introductory section, which should contain one or more clauses explaining the background to the directive. If the Directive forms part of the MRT’s Safety Management System then this introduction should also contain one or more clauses explaining the role of the Directive within that system.

Review and Revision of Policy Directives

  1. Every Policy Directive that is issued or revised subsequent to this Directive coming into force will specify in its text (normally as part of its introduction) the intervals at which it will be due for review. These intervals should normally be any whole number of years from five to ten inclusive, as appropriate to the content of the Directive.
  1. At the beginning of each calendar year the Company Secretary will report to the Council which Policy Directives are due for review during that year. The Council may also determine at any time that a particular Policy Directive should be reviewed if circumstances affecting the Directive have changed to an extent that such a review appears to be necessary.
  1. Whenever a Policy Directive is to be reviewed, the Council will convene a group of individuals to review it, attempting as far as possible to match in that group the roles represented by those who had originally formulated that Directive. If the review identifies that the Directive needs to be revised, then this group of individuals should formulate the revised version of it.
  • If the outcome of the review of a Policy Directive is that the scope of its content (as indicated by its subject) does not need to be changed, but that amendments need to be made to its text, then the Council should issue a revised version of the Directive, which will keep the same topic area code and reference number as the previous version, but with a new revision date. Any such amendments to a Policy Directive, no matter how minor, will be made by completely reissuing it, so as to avoid the need to consult several different versions to obtain the complete text.
  • If the outcome of the review of a Policy Directive is that the scope of its content (as indicated by its subject) does need to be changed, then the Council will issue the revised content as a new Policy Directive, which will have a new combination of topic area code and reference number. If this new Directive is to completely replace the previous one, then the introductory section of it must contain a clause that specifies that the old Directive is being rescinded. Also, the heading of the new Directive must contain a line to specify that it completely replaces the old one.
  • If it is necessary to issue a new Policy Directive which should partially replace a previous one, then as well as issuing the new Directive a revision must be made of the previous one, so as to produce a version that will just contain the material from the previous Directive that is to be retained.

Schedules to Policy Directives

  • Where a Policy Directive requires any person to issue material that contains detail which it is not convenient to specify in the Directive itself, then the Directive must specify to whom that material is to be issued, and how it is to be issued to them. Where this material consists of detail that only needs to be issued to those who are concerned with the Policy Directive, but this detail is likely to change more frequently than the principles defined in the Directive, then the Directive may specify that this material is to be issued as a Schedule to the Policy Directive. If this material needs to be issued to any people other than those who are concerned with the Policy Directive, then it must be published by some other mechanism (such as being issued as instructions), and not as a Schedule to the Directive.
  • Any Schedule to a Policy Directive will be issued and published as part of the Policy Directive itself. If a Schedule to a Policy Directive needs to be revised, then the revision must be issued as a revision of the whole Directive, even though the rest of the content of the Directive has not changed. Such a revision of a Schedule must not require a change in the topic area code or reference number of the Directive, but only the revision date.
  • Where a Policy Directive specifies that a Schedule is to be issued to it, then it must specify the process by which the Schedule may be amended. In particular this must specify whether the Schedule can only be amended by the Council, or whether individuals holding particular offices are authorised to amend that Schedule.
  • If a Policy Directive authorises individuals holding particular offices to amend a Schedule to that Directive, then it must specify whether those individuals are then required to report such amendments to the Council. If it does not specify that such amendments need be reported to the Council, then any such individuals must report such amendments to the Company Secretary, so that a revised version of the Directive containing these amendments can be issued and published.

Schedule 1: List of Topic Areas and Codes

The list of topic areas and codes that is specified in clause 9 of this Directive is as follows.

Finance                                                FIN

General                                                GEN

Health and Safety                                 HS

Information Technology                        IT

Membership and Volunteering               MEM

Museum Activities                                MUS

Safety Management System                   SMS

Train Operations                                   TOP

Drafted by A J Cowling (Company Secretary), and approved on 2nd July 2019.